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2 Replies Last post: Aug 17, 2008 9:31 PM by MacCheetah3  
Click to view Dave90's profile New Member
Dave90
23 posts since
Nov 1, 2007
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Aug 16, 2008 3:11 PM

Hard Drive size on a MacBook 13 inch Black late 2006

Can anyone advise me please. I have just had my second Seagate 80 Gig drive fail in 18 Months. I want to change Manufacturer to a Western Digital Caviar 400gb 8mb Ata/100 7200 rpm. Would the large capacity work OK
The new MacBooks are coming out with a 250 Gig drive, still Seagate I understand. The other options I have from the same Manufacturer are a 160 Gig or a 320 Gig. I am not bothered about cost, I just thought that while I am at it, I may as well go for a 400 Gig, if the system / software can handle it. The main reason for asking is that in the old days, Windows PC's would not accept large hard drive capacities. Are Mac's the same? Thanks from Dave Ticehurst.
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Click to view rickcarl's profile Member
rickcarl
251 posts since
Feb 27, 2008
1. Aug 17, 2008 7:54 AM in response to: Dave90
Re: Hard Drive size on a MacBook 13 inch Black late 2006
You have to make sure your computer is an ATA or a SATA drive model. Click on the Apple in the upper left corner and select About this Mac - more info and look at the chart. You will (probably) have an ATA listing for the CD/DVD drive and a Serial ATA listing for the hard drive. Compare ATA and SATA drives at macsales.

There are more things to consider that just gig size. Check size (Mac will handle any GB size but only 9.5mm thick), rotation speed, cache, heat generated, throughput (Mac is a 1.5GB/s throughput) and price. Might as well buy an enclosure for the old drive to use as a backup while you're at it.

All hard drives can fail regardless of maker. Heat and drops while running are two good reasons.

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Click to view MacCheetah3's profile Old Hand
MacCheetah3
6,645 posts since
Apr 2, 2001
2. Aug 17, 2008 9:31 PM in response to: Dave90
Re: Hard Drive size on a MacBook 13 inch Black late 2006
Hi
These will work in your MacBook. Any hard drive can fail from any manufacturer. It revolves around 'luck'. It's a high speed mechanical device working at microscopic levels in many different ways.

• HowStuffWorks "How Hard Disks Work"
• How A Computer Hard Drive Work - Video

Hitachi / IBM have some of the highest reviews but Seagate has gotten quite a few. I do like Seagate's five year manufacturer warranty. That warranty, however, is overrided by whichever manufacturer uses it in most cases.

If capacity is a preference for you, Hitachi offers both 400GB and 500GB models.

Though...

If fairly good capacity and the highest performance are preferred, both Hitachi and Seagate offer 7,200RPM, 16MB cache ( buffer ) models.

Apple MacBook (Black) 2.16GHz C2D, 4GB, 200GB (7.2K), DL-SD + 16GB iPod touch - http://web.me.com/ctschida - http://www.click2debug.com
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